How would you like to be featured on Entrepreneur.com, The Huffington Post and The Content Marketing Institute among many others?
Imagine the status you gain when people see that…
Well after listening to this episode,
YOU WILL be well on your way to getting featured anywhere you want.
Mike Fishbein’s here to tell us how.
He’s got some tips, tricks and especially some bulletproof strategies that WILL get you featured.
Mike’s managed to publish himself on the biggest sites on the net.
And now he’s on the show to reveal a ton of his tacts..
His guest-blogging tactics will teach you to attain industry leading companies featured (“As Seen On…”) on your site.
His tactics will make you better at whatever you do,
Because once you’re featured on the big sites,
You’re a pro..
..in my eyes, and in the eyes of all the more customers you’ll gain from it.
The bottom line is this: YOU CAN DO IT TOO.
Yes it is more than possible.
Listen in now and learn how.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- how Guest Blogging places you directly in front of your target audience (use it instead of trying to get to them with your own blogs’ posts)
- the fact that guest blogging would never hurt your main domain (it will only boost your blog)
- ways to distribute your work, get seen and get paid… all without forking over cash for advertising and PR
- that blog post after blog post after blog post may not be the answer (learn what works better and takes about a million hours less time to do)
- Exactly what to say in your follow-up emails (great to learn… it’s something you’ll be doing a lot of!)
- how a STORY can be the foundation of the value you give as well as everything that attracts them and keeps them on your stuff
- where to look for the “write for us” link that top sites like Entrepreneur offer (the very first step to getting a powerful guest post published)
- the absolutely PERFECT way to write a cold email that pitches your guest blog on to major sites (hint… you’ll be using one of your posts)
- the key locations to place a first name tag within your marketing materials or content published (HUGE)
- the ONE main question Mike asks within his cold outreach emails (plus a second one he uses sometimes)
- a new personal angle to guest posts and the fact that it could be even more beneficial with the right website.
- the morbid fact that people don’t reply… and the wonderful way to get them to
Mentioned:
- Guest Blogging Masterclass – Mike’s book
- Mike’s Blog
- The End Of Jobs by Taylor Pearson
- Entrepreneur.com
Intro and outro backing music: Forever More by CREO
Raw transcript:
John McIntyre: Its John McIntyre here the auto responder guy and I’m here with
Mike Fishbone. Now Mike is a guest, I don’t know exactly what …to introduce himself in a
second, but basically he’s a guest blogger and he has been on sites like entrepreneur.com, the
Huffington Post, the Content Marketing Institute. And so basically he’s mean published himself
on some of the biggest content on new sites on the internet, which is great because then you
can obviously get those as seen on, put the as seen on section on your website with the logos
of these sites and a lot of people I think struggle with getting on these sites. So, they want to
go and pay an agency $5,000 to figure it out for them, instead you can just follow Mike
strategies and you can do it all yourself and … so he’s also self-published a book on Amazon
called the “Guest Blogging Master Class” which goes to exactly how he does it and that’s why
we’re having a chat today. So, thought to be a great guest to chat about. Guest blogging or
guest posting is a way to get traffic and built up your sales. So, Mike! How are you doing?
Mike: Thanks for having me. I’m doing well.
John McIntyre: Good to have you on the show man. So, before we get into the
guest blogging needy greedy strategies, can you give the listener bit more background on who
you are and what you do?
Mike: Sure, yeah, I’m a blogger, content marketer and a serial self-published
author on Amazon. I started blogging about three or four years ago now and it’s been a long
and fun journey in the blogging and content marketing world.
John McIntyre: Nice, nice, okay, very cool, very cool. So, let’s get into it and
let’s get discuss blogging thing. Imagine that most people understand what it is. It’s where you
go on and blog a blog post or put on someone else’s site, talking on some of the
misconceptions. What do you get wrong about guest blogging?
Mike: I think a lot of people avoid it. I think them sort of have this kind of
syndrome where they sort of think that their site is like a sort of a special snowflake and I was
certainly guilty of this when I first got started. I was thinking man; I have this new site up. I
can’t wait to build it up. I have such a great content. I can’t wait to get out there, but you
know what I was doing no matter how hard I worked on the actual content or how hard I
worked on the promotion of the content, I just wasn’t getting much traffic. I was looking at
my Google Analytics account and it was not saying good things that were very inspiring to me.
So, you know guest blogging really helped me just get right in front of my target audience and
so I guess the issue there is like people are very concerned with sort of owning their content
and focusing on their own blog exclusively which certainly is value, when I still do certainly
post on my own site, but I think guest blogging is a great way to sort of expedite that process.
Yeah, you mentioned before like you need to hire a big PR firm or something like that to get
published and I actually, you know, again I’ve done that as well. I paid a lot of money and it
hasn’t helped all that much and conversely when I just do it myself with things as simple as a
well articulated cold email. I have been able to get on a lot of these sites. So, it doesn’t hurt
your main domain and it’s relatively easy to do if you just do it right.
John McIntyre: Okay, okay, so one interesting thing, I was just actually
reading a book recently by … called the end of jobs and he mentions this and he give some
examples of his planning to the book launch. In the back of the book just sort of described
goal setting process and tasks managing process and he made a really interesting point which
a lot of people don’t think about, which is that a lot of people go out there and not published
300 blog post or you know a couple of years, but then they have got barely any traffic and
they don’t make any money and the solution is to keep publishing more blog posts, that’s what
they used to do. The challenge though is that you’d be better off creating 5 or 6 amazing blog
post. So it’s really, really just the best blog post in the entire industry on your topic, putting
those on your site and then spending the rest of your time working on the distribution which
basically means instead of going if you’re not gonna spend money in advertising you want to
do all this with PR, instead of right publicity to amazing blog post for your own site and then
spent the rest of your time doing any more blog post for yourself. Going right, just going right
guest post for as many different sites as possible. That would be a more effective strategy
then publishing an average mediocre guest post every week, something like that.
Mike: Yeah, I like that strategy a lot. Especially, I think is content
marketing, blogging is getting a little bit more competitive. I mean nowadays you can build a
website literally within a few clicks of a mouse. So, lots and lots of people are you know
creating content, I guess the quote from Gary Vaynerchuk is you know everybody is a media
company now. So, you know I’m seeing some other things you know what I put in the effort to
go the extra mile and create a better post, you know disproportionately higher returns. So, I
agree with you know putting a lot into individual posts.
John McIntyre: Okay, so let’s get into how it actually happens? How do
you go on entrepreneur.com? You mentioned well-crafted cold emails, so let’s start there, how
do you find the person to email and what does the email say?
Mike: Yeah, so a lot of the sites will have some kind of contact page or
contribute page and you know again like a lot of sites are actually looking for your content.
They’re in the business of content, like entrepreneur is a media company, so you know they
thrive on traffic in the way they get traffic is through really good content. So, if you have it,
they want it and so a lot of sites will have a contribute or write for us or guest post for us or
just simply a contact page and that’s often in the header or in the footer or you can try just
goggling for like entrepreneur write for us or entrepreneur guest post you know and usually
you will either find in header or a specific email address you should reach out to you if you
want to contribute or some kind of contact form. Again it can be different for every site.
Once you find that, what I like to do is actually have a post already written. That’s something
that I do, that’s a little bit different. This just got to me better results than simply saying here
is a few ideas or here’s a bit about me and like that I just like to say send a specific posts and
it seems like it makes easier for them to give the GO-NO-GO and that I’m contributing quality
stuff and all that and then the email that I sent is literally like five sentences long. Its hey,
you know address it personally, you know would you be interested in a post on a topic?
John McIntyre: You address a person; you just do it like hi David,
something like that?
Mike: Yeah, I use the person’s name. Sometimes, I use the site name in
the subject line somewhere, like contributing to entrepreneurial.
John McIntyre: How do you know, like entrepreneur.com is a big
company? So, how do you find, how do you know who you’re emailing, so you can put their
name on it?
Mike: See, well some sites directly say like reach out to you know
Emily or whatever it is. Otherwise, a lot of sites have like a team page and you can look at
the name and either is like a contributor’s editor or just like an editor. You can see their
names. I’ve also used LinkedIn to browse through company to bring up the company page on
LinkedIn and see if I can find an editor’s name if I can.
John McIntyre: Okay, okay … you say hi David, what happens after that?
Mike: It’s usually just you know would you be interested in a post on
your site or entrepreneur on the topic of X. Do like one sentence introducing myself like I do
XYZ or maybe you know I’ve been published on you know so and so sites previously, but that’s
not even necessary. Then I say I just wrote a post titled this, it covers XYZ and then I’ll just
say would you be interested in publishing a post on this topic or you know maybe something
like you have any feedback but usually yes you know would you be interested in publishing
this and I fire away you know some … that’s all it takes, like literally I have been published on
sites with just that. But a lot of times it takes a lot of follow ups, especially with the site like
entrepreneur and entrepreneur particular is probably the hardest one for me. It took me
months of following up.
John McIntyre: Interesting, interesting because I have a friend who
writes for entrepreneur and I haven’t actually asked him how he does. I think he recently did,
you go on the Sales force blog and you get response blog and he did like everything was just
like chatting to Sales force on twitter and just emailing back and forth and may have just …
and they went for it and then the same thing happened with Get Response. So, a lot of the
time it sounds like just the hardest part is just reaching out. I don’t know a lot of people
would play with on entreprenuer.com and they wouldn’t even bother reaching out to them
because they’re like oh I could never write for these people.
Mike: Yeah, you can do it. Again, like if it’s a mutually beneficial
arrangement, like I am not. My posts are like play in the promotional for my site or anything
like that, like again the site wants traffic and really good content. So, if I can provide with
them at that and they you know they have staff writers that they would otherwise be paying a
full-time salary to do this stuff, so if you do, if you really are providing by making it mutually
beneficial, you can definitely do it and you know there’s definitely some truth like I said to
entrepreneur being harder to get to but a lot of sites that are smaller and more focused can
be a lot easier and still deliver really great results.
John McIntyre: I think a big part is, I was actually chatting to someone … get a
deal with the site. I get a ton of traffic in the online business space right now. We’re doing a
blog post every week for them and the blog post it will be doing that be good that be great
blog post, but they’re not personal sites, like this sort of thing you’d expect in a blog, like 10
things of this or fifteen templates for this, so that’s sort of thing. And it’s been working well,
but when I spoke to the guys on the site today, we’re chatting about brainstorming ideas for
better posts and then some interesting points because …tens of thousands of customers that
need help with email marketing and I come in there and I’m like instead of saying he is …
filling the blank subject lines which is one of the most we did. Instead, we go in there and we
say something like the story about how I built a business that allows me to live anywhere I
want to travel in the world with email marketing and so adding it instead of just going
straight for needy greedy like tactical blog post that you see on almost every site on the
internet. You start like opening up with. I don’t know if this will work as well with
entrepreneur or some of these sites, may be it would, but getting more personal about the
stories and the struggles, and because that really connect with people a lot more than
sometimes just generic blog post material.
Mike: Yeah, I love that. I mean people love stories and that’s really
what people engage with, like when you can get an emotional reaction with people and you
know that subject probably is great and just telling a story and using like actually illustrate
the advice that you’re going to give. Again, I think that’s something that’s super evaluable and
I think that’s something that you know the smart editors who know what their readers want
like that’s definitely something that you know … resonate.
John McIntyre: Yeah, yeah, I mean what sort of stuff do you write about?
Mike: I do a lot about marketing and yeah this is something else you
know tactical posts and that’s really definitely valuable in term of you get some response or if
working more on, talking more about my blogging journey and some of the campaign’s that I
have actually done and giving more behind the scenes look at stuff I’m actually doing.
John McIntyre: Ok give an example, like what was the last blog post that
you wrote or guest post that you wrote?
Mike: I think one of the more recent ones was on content marketing
Institute. I wrote about you know how to get published on top sites was really just about the
process of kind of like you know reaching out and following up and all that stuff and I told this
one story about networking and how I used some networking to get in. There is it was the
story about how I actually met Arianna Huffington from the Huffington Post and I just talked
about how I was so nervous and I didn’t feel what are the and all this stuff and I think that’s
the kind of stuff that people can relate to and yeah I guess kind of it inspires people but it
also illustrates some good advice about getting out there at networking.
John McIntyre: The fascinating thing about this stuff is like I teach
people to write emails, you know great emails that connect with their target market and a lot
of it comes back to I mean not just telling stories like once upon a time kind of stories but
opening up and big real as a person, revealing more of who you are yeah as a real human
being instead of just talking in a conceptual nature about a topic. You know I did a thing
recently wrote a blog post about a trip to Necker island with Richard Branson and it was being
the most popular blog post ever written and there was some takeaways and then there was a
few like you know actionable takeaways, but that wasn’t really the focus. The focus was just
to use the story and use a few things I learn and how I struggled and all that sort of stuff and
it really resonated. People were really; really responsive and so its fascinating how you can
take instead of … like oh I have given so much value and overwhelming with you know just
help them and solve all their problems and yes that’s true but instead of going, I say here’s
five tips to do X, Y, Z. What’s going to work a lot better is going to be like, here’s is how I
achieved ABC and then XYZ just happens to be the tips. So, then you have a story about how
you always down and out how you almost ran out of money, …bankrupt or you broke your leg,
whatever happens the story becomes the sort of the foundation for the value that you’ve
given the stories at entertainment value, but when you still giving value in the phone tips or
strategies or advice or something like that, but when it’s built on a story it just connects and
goes through so much more.
Mike: Yeah definitely that’s strategy, that’s… a great post.
John McIntyre: So, what’s next? So, you go on to entrepreneur.com, you
email them and send it off and then what happens? Do you need to follow up with them three
times, five times, ten times or something like that or what are the next steps or do you just
wake up you know a week later and they say use your article already published.
Mike: Yeah it often takes some following up. I mean entrepreneur for
me was like the most extreme case where that really took me like two to three months of
following up like almost once a week. Some sites that can be easier like literally just one
email, especially if you’re already in a relationship with them, but usually I find it the
averages about you know 1-3 follow-up emails. Usually, follow-up is about like once every five
to seven days which is the quick note. It is just because a lot of these editors are very, very
busy. They maybe even get a lot of pitches for press coverage in guest posts and feedback in a
million… things. So, it does often just take you know if you follow up emails.
John McIntyre: Okay and then what do you say in the follow up emails?
Mike: I usually just ask have you had a chance to check out the post. Is
there anything I can do to improve it, something like that like just two sentences?
John McIntyre: So, no … like hey how about a chance to look at it, any
good that sort of thing.
Mike: Yeah, like I try to do like a lower pressure ask, like hey do you
want to publish this. That’s like a lot of work on their end. Like hey have you had a chance to
review it that’s like a much smaller action, much smaller next step.
John McIntyre: ok that’s really very simple strategy just going out there
you email. How many people would you have to get in contact for like you got a hundred
percent hit right or?
Mike: Oh! No, yeah, I definitely don’t get a hundred percent hit rate. I
would guess that I am like 50 or maybe a little less maybe 40 percent but you know that’s
fine. This is sort of you know what it takes. You know no hard feelings or anything like that
and it’s all pays off even with all the reaching out that doesn’t lead to the publication.
John McIntyre: Right, have you been able to get feature on sites like The
New York Times or The Wall Street Journal?
Mike: Those have been tough. I don’t think I’ve tried those sites
specifically but there’s definitely been a couple a really big sites that are like still chipping
away at.
John McIntyre: Okay, okay this is interesting. It’s a fun little game to play
to see like what it takes. I like the fact that you followed up, it took you three months with
some of with entrepreneur.com, that 12 follow-ups. Most people would follow up twice. A lot
of people asked me about this with the podcast that I do with some of the guests that I get
and the answer every time I just follow up, like I will follow-up on once a week until they say
no and most people never say no. They eventually just do it. All they just stopped replying
and after 10 or 15 or 20 none replies I use to start to get a little bit easier on them but it
really isn’t a follow-up. That’s really where the magic happens.
Mike: Yeah, so many things. I was just joking with a friend recently
about like probably like how much money I made from setting follow-up emails, like it’s
annoying, but the truth of the matter is that it works and it’s really important.
John McIntyre: Yeah, cool man. That’s pretty cool. Cool little strategy. If
people want to learn more about this and get more information, get the strategy to get on
the books that you’ve written, where should they do that and how should they do that?
Mike: Yeah, I got the book on Amazon just called the guest blogging
master class. You can also get a free chapter at guest blogging masterclass.com and I’ll send
you to my blog which is mfishbein.com.
John McIntyre: Perfect! Mike thanks for coming on the show man.
Mike: Thanks for having me John.